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Everyone agrees that Social Media is a great tool for businesses to get their message and brand out there.. But the one question that keeps surfacing is “how long will these services last?”

One reader of a blog we recently subscribed to commented: “Myspace has turned into spam dump. Facebook is getting there slowly but surely, and Twitter is beginning to.” What we have to realise though is that, as with all channels, we have been in an almost frantic state of mind caused by the massive shifts we have seen in the way communication takes place – anyone and everyone who has access to the internet has been trying to get some attention, causing the space we all love to ‘hang out’ in (according to Google+) to become cluttered and noisy.

Some of the leaders in the field have predicted that 2012 will be the year that we will see this change. Businesses will learn to focus their voice, readers/consumers will be able to control the kinds of communication they receive, and we will see incredible improvements in the way we interact with each other – no matter who it is you find yourself talking to.

To make sure you and your company don’t become social-litterbugs, take a look at some of our pointers below:

Check your account settings – make sure you know who can access any postings you make before you post them.

Check your privacy settings – You need to be sure that you are not revealing more personal information about yourself than is necessary. After all, you don’t give the guy you met in the line at SPAR your home address do you?

Make sure you’re not talking too much.. Just as we take care in our real-world activities to keep from giving away sensitive company information (intellectual property), we should be mindful of what we say online.

No-one likes a fake! Make sure you are completely honest and accurate with the information you’re giving away.

Don’t spam! 80% of the content you put out there needs to be informational – 20% or less should be sales. If you become the authority on your topic, people will look for you when they need your services.. but if you keep “selling” while they want to have a conversation, you will end up annoying the end-user and driving future clients away instead. This is a great example

Social media is an increasing trend in the 21st century, some may think it is just a fad yet it has actually become a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. The world has become obsessed with anything that is ‘social’ online and this has given marketers access to networks that are instant in response, multimedia rich and ever challenging.

In 2011, social media continued to make a major impact on the promotions of many businesses and brands. Google launched Google+ which cost $500 million in development costs. Twitter and Facebook have become a standard application in most smart phones such as Blackberry and iPhones. Blogging did not ‘die’. Facebook now has over 800 million users and Twitter has over 200 million.

The role of social media in the spreading and sharing of content and improving website and blog search engine optimization has never been more obvious to the professional social media marketer. We will no longer have to search for products and services because they will find us via social media.

“We do not have a choice whether we DO social media, the question is how well we DO it” – Erik Qualman

The following facts have been obtained from the You Tube videos, The Social Media Revolution (http://bit.ly/z0GH7S), which is based on the book Socialnomics by Erik Qualman:

Social Media is about PEOPLE.

50% of the World’s population is under the age of 30 years.

Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the US.

Social Media has an impact on our ‘offline’ behaviour. 1 in 5 couples meet online, 3 in 5 gay couples meet online and 1 in 5 divorces are blamed on Facebook.

Kindergartens are no longer using chalkboards instead they are using Apple iPad’s!

Over 37 million people have watched the VW Darth Vader advert yet the child actor had never seen Star Wars.

E-readers outsold traditional books on Christmas 2011.

Wikipedia has over 15 million articles, 78% of them are NOT in English.

If Wikipedia was made into a book it would be 2.25 million pages long and it would take 123 years to read.

10. 90% of all consumers prefer peer recommendations while only 14% trust advertisements.

11. 93% of marketers use Social Media for business.

12. The ROI (Return of Investment) of Social Media means that your business will still exist in 5 years.

13. Social Media has overtaken pornography as the #1 activity on the internet.

14. Only 18% of traditional TV adverts generate a positive ROI.

15. 90% of people will skip adverts on TV between programs.

16. 24 out of the 25 largest newspapers are in decline.

We no longer search for the news because the news finds us. We will no long search for products and services because they will find us via social media. Social Media Marketing allows us to LISTEN FIRST and SELL SECOND.